At a public hearing Saturday hosted by the state Department of Toxic Substances Control, the activists and residents expressed their frustration with how long it's taking for the cleanup of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory outside Simi Valley to begin. The site experienced a partial nuclear meltdown in 1959,
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Melissa Bumstead, an organizer for Parents Against SSFL, speaks against the California Department of Toxic Substances Control's handling of the proposed cleanup of the Santa Susana Field Lab during a public hearing Saturday at the Simi Valley Senior Center.(Photo11: DAVID YAMAMOTO/SPECIAL TO THE STAR)Buy Photo

Officials of the state department overseeing the long-planned cleanup of the contaminated Santa Susana Field Laboratory got an earful Saturday from activists frustrated with the latest delay in starting the remediation.

“It needs to be cleaned up,” Arline Mathews, 91, of Chatsworth, told officials of the state Department of Toxic Substances Control at a public hearing at the Simi Valley Senior Center. “It’s a killer.

“It kills our children,” said Mathews, who lost a son to brain cancer she attributes to contamination at the nearby 2,850-acre field lab site in unincorporated hills just southeast of Simi Valley.

The site experienced a 1959 partial nuclear meltdown and other chemical and radioactive contamination over the years when it was the Rocketdyne/Atomics International rocket engine test and nuclear facility,

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Melissa Bumstead, an organizer for Parents Against SSFL, holds up a sign to protest the California Department of Toxic Substances Control's handling of the proposed cleanup of the Santa Susana Field Lab during a public hearing Saturday at the Simi Valley Senior Center. DAVID YAMAMOTO/SPECIAL TO THE STAR

Melissa Bumstead, an organizer for Parents Against SSFL, speaks against the California Department of Toxic Substances Control's handling of the proposed cleanup of the Santa Susana Field Lab during a public hearing Saturday at the Simi Valley Senior Center. DAVID YAMAMOTO/SPECIAL TO THE STAR

Deva Andrews, left, and Karin Carlson hold signs to protest the California Department of Toxic Substances Control's handling of the proposed cleanup of the Santa Susana Field Lab during a public hearing Saturday at the Simi Valley Senior Center. DAVID YAMAMOTO/SPECIAL TO THE STAR

Lisa Geer and her daughter Natalie listen to the speakers while holding signs to protest the California Department of Toxic Substances Control's handling of the proposed cleanup of the Santa Susana Field Lab during a public hearing Saturday at the Simi Valley Senior Center. DAVID YAMAMOTO/SPECIAL TO THE STAR

Arline Mathews blames the toxic environmental effects from the Santa Susana Field Lab site on her son's cancer while speaking during a public hearing at the Simi Valley Senior Center. DAVID YAMAMOTO/SPECIAL TO THE STAR

Cleanup activists hold up signs along the street to protest the California Department of Toxic Substances Control's handling of the proposed cleanup of the Santa Susana Field Lab during a public hearing Saturday at the Simi Valley Senior Center. DAVID YAMAMOTO/SPECIAL TO THE STAR

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About 90 people attended Saturday’s hearing, held by the state agency to gather public input on a proposed plan by the U.S. Department of Energy to demolish five of its inactive buildings at the site, three of which are still contaminated.

Mohsen Nazemi, a deputy director of the Department of Toxic Substances Control, said agency officials would not be responding to any of the public comments at Saturday’s hearing because the public comment period is still open, until Oct. 12.

Once the public comment period ends, the department will then respond to the comments, he said.

The agency will also take the comments into consideration in deciding whether to approve the Energy Department’s closure plans, he said.

The public can mail written comments to Laura Rainey, DTSC Senior Engineering Geologist and Project Manager, Site Mitigation and Restoration Program, 5796 Corporate Ave., Cypress, CA 90630, or email them to her at laura.rainey@dtsc.ca.gov.

The state agency will issue its decision likely within 60 days of the close of public comments, Nazemi said.

In January, the department said it would finally reveal what its cleanup plan for the site will be in a “decision document” to be released in the second half of this year or the first half of 2019.

In August, however, the department said that was no longer the timetable and it couldn’t provide a new date for the document’s release, once again disappointing cleanup activists.

“DTSC has broken every commitment it has ever made about the Santa Susana cleanup, and now it’s going to do that again,” Michael Rincon speaking on behalf of Physicians for Social Responsibility — Los Angeles, told department officials at Saturday’s hearing. “It is 2018 and the cleanup hasn’t even begun.”

Rincon was one of about 25 speakers to criticize the agency’s handling of the long-planned cleanup, their remarks frequently applauded by audience members who held up signs with messages such as “DTSC Lies” and “Broken Promises.”

Before the hearing, about 25 cleanup activists demonstrated outside the senior center with signs reflecting their belief that the contaminated site has caused higher rates of cancer in area children.

“Our Kids are Dying While the DOE and DTSC are Lying,” read one such sign. “DTSC Lied. Our Kids Died,” read another.

“When are they going to clean it up?” Santa Susana Knolls resident Dawn Kowalski asked. “Got to keep pressure on them. There are children dying. There are adults dying. And there is no cleanup done.

“This is ridiculous farce by the DTSC,” she said.

Most of the site is now owned by aerospace giant Boeing and is divided into four areas with northern and southern buffer zones.

Boeing is responsible for cleaning up Area 3, its part of Area 1 and the Southern Buffer Zone. The Department of Energy does not own any land at the site, but is also responsible for the cleanup of Area 4 and the Northern Buffer Zone.

NASA administers a smaller portion of the site and is responsible for remediating Area 2 and its part of Area 1.